Jerry Tillery film review; Can the Chiefs' new DL add some juice to the pass rush?
Looking at the former first rounder's film from 2024 to see what he brings to the table.
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the Chiefs are… a tad thin along the defensive line.
With Tershawn Wharton and Derrick Nnadi both signing elsewhere, and Mike Pennel and Charles Omenihu still remaining in free agency (as of now, as I write this around 6 PM on 3/19), Kansas City is missing nearly 1,500 snaps from last year’s defensive line. And really, it’s worse than that given Omenihu didn’t start playing until November (thus lowering his total snaps by hundreds, as he really played close to starter-level snaps even coming back from injury).
While there’s still a chance Omenihu and Pennel come back (I’d sign both if I were Veach, as both played well last year and Omenihu has a much higher ceiling in his second year back from a torn ACL), losing Wharton will hurt. The undrafted free agent had a career year last season, providing a little bit of juice to the pass rush (not always consistently, but often enough to matter) and taking advantage the matchups presented while playing next to the best defensive tackle in the game. In other words, the Chiefs need bodies along the defensive line.
Last week they took a step towards addressing that, signing former first round pick (and multi-year Charger) Jerry Tillery to a one-year deal.
Tillery, at 28 years old, is in something of a unique position. He’s never quite lived up to his draft status (or talent level, but we’ll come back to that) and after being a fairly productive member of the Chargers’ rotation had a quiet year in Minnesota last season following a few seasons with the Raiders (NOT the Rams, as I erroneously put in there in the initial draft. Sheesh). He saw plenty of snaps for a very good defense but didn’t receive many accolades as primarily a 3-4 DE who lined up in multiple gaps (we’ll come back to that too). In short, he appears to be entering his “one year mercenary contract” stage of his career… unless he can string together one nice season. If he does, he’ll get himself one last good payday. If he doesn’t, these one year deals are likely all he’ll be able to earn.
Tillery came into the league with a great deal of hype given his considerable physical gifts. He’s an excellent athlete and has the long arm build that teams are looking for in a gap-shooting defensive tackle, along with the power/athleticism combination that defensive coordinators salivate over. But of course, talent alone can’t make a successful NFL career (the list of players who have learned that is long and storied), and again, Tillery is at a position where he’s getting paid “rotational defender” money in the open market. By signing with the Chiefs on a one year deal, he’s clearly looking to have a good enough season to grab that last payday.
So that’s a summary of Tillery’s situation. And if you’ve looked at his stats from last year you were likely less than impressed. But what does the film say? I’ve always been intrigued by Tillery, and he had some nice performances over the years against the Chiefs while he was with the Chargers, so I was curious what he looked like on film in a defense that had him playing very differently than how he’ll be playing under Steve Spagnuolo.
And so I went back and watched every snap Tillery played last season against MN, SF, HOU, GB, NUH, DET, LAR, CHI, and SEA, as well as all of his pass rush snaps (thanks NFL Pro!). The goal, as ever, is to see what he looks like on a snap-by-snap basis against multiple opponents and get an idea where he fits with Spags and, perhaps more importantly, next to All-Universe defensive tackle Chris Jones. Similar to how we talked about Kristian Fulton, let’s look at where Tillery wins, where he doesn’t, and what his overall fit is like in Kansas City.
After looking at the film, I’m significantly warmer on the signing than I was when it was announced. Let’s talk about it.
Where Tillery Wins
Before I talk about Tillery’s traits, one thing I noted is that in Minnesota’s system he was utilized quite a bit as a 3-4 defensive end playing either 5-tech or otherwise opposite the tackle. He even played a an actual “edge” at times. Finally, he was often asked to be a setup guy in a stunt or to eat blockers so a blitzer could get through. In other words, he was asked to line up farther outside than I think is his comfort zone. Where he did his best work was more as a pure defensive tackle, which would align better with his role in Kansas City. In fact, it was the snaps where he was in a role that I’d call a Tershawn Wharton role” that he did most of his best work. We’ll come back to that in the final section, but it’s definitely worth keeping in mind when looking at his low statistical output.
Let’s start with how Tillery wins as a pass rusher, as that’s the area that will get the most attention and has the largest impact on the game overall.
Tillery has flashes every game where you see why he was drafted in the first round. He has a combination of length, functional strength, and athleticism that is part of the “planet” theory (there are only a certain number of guys on the planet who possess a certain size/strength/athleticism combination). While Tillery doesn’t have absolutely elite strength/athleticism like, say, Chris Jones, he’s above average in both in a way that definitely gives interior offensive linemen trouble.
Tillery has several pass rush moves that he relies on to try and get to half a man (which utilizes his power/handfighting) or to a position where he can move around the blocker (which utilizes his athleticism).
